I am living a strange life since the New Zealander of the Year Award. A deluge of speaking invitations from extraordinarily diverse groups and organisations has turned me into a sort of public entertainer.I am not wasting this opportunity to get a message across with multiple captive audiences. Here are some examples: the Parliamentary Speakers Forum, the Salvation Army, secondary school careers advisors, the New Zealand Medical Students Association, World Class New Zealanders, the Labour Party Conference, Federated Farmers Conference, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Social Development. The Parliamentary Greens invited me, then uninvited me when I promised "tough love". What I am delivering is a 20 minute "stump speech" which I vary a bit according to the audience. Thanks to Wendy McGuinness of the "Sustainable Future Institute", the talk got filmed last week and with some IT magic, the powerpoint slides were incorporated to give the YouTube presentation below.
Given our present economic gloom, the talk title represents a degree of optimism bordering on lunacy, namely
"Sustainable economic growth for New Zealand: An optimistic myth-busting approach".
Brilliant, Paul. Continue to use your "bully pulpit!" (It's ironic that the Greens do not trust their ideology will stand up to a factual critique.)
ReplyDeleteThanks Ed. The talk seems to work for diverse audiences and across the political spectrum. The bits of humour in there help to leaven it a bit. I think the right wingers like the borax being pointed at the environmental fanatics, as well as the pro-business perspective, while the lefties like the emphasis on the need for greater income parity, environmentalism for a purpose and growing prosperity so that we can achieve social goals. I really do believe that we can turn the country around by getting the "business model" right. It's amazing how well we have done with a disastrous business model.
ReplyDeleteGreat talk - I showed this to my folks last night and we all agree these are important ideas that you've delivered very effectively. Interestingly, I received an email from a medical colleague in London this morning recommending this same video! It is encouraging to see the message is getting around.
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